........................................... from the editor ............................................ happy holidays
2016 then - wow , what a strange year ! Personally , it was awesome ; for the rest of the world , who knows ? We ’ ve lost some of the most influential artists and figures of the twentieth century and seen political turmoil in the wake of unlikely results from the Brexit vote and US presidential election . 2016 has been one massive curve ball .
But for me I can ’ t remember a busier or more successful year . We kicked ass with a new webstore and warehouse system . One of the most testing , stressful and rewarding this we ’ ve done ( even with the sleepless nights !). We changed the magazine ’ s focus and broadened it to everything we love , no rules ! I managed to tick quite a few things of the bucket list : became a dad , magazine editor , snowboarded with Torstein , rode MX with Everts & Townley . It blows my mind how far we ’ ve come in the last ten-plus years .
The most exciting thing is we still have so much in the locker ! This year we reached 100 million people on Facebook and printed 90,000 magazines - that ’ s over 10 million pages . Pretty epic for our small family-run business .
This issue is a wrap-up of some of our highlights of the year , along with a few great new features . We ’ ve assembled six of our favourite “ five minutes with …” interviews , including fresh chats with Wes Kremer and Tommy Gesme . We got the chance to go into a bit more detail in a frank conversation between Simon Makker and Robbie Maddison , while Michael Laverty caught up with MXGP newcomer and champion Tim Gajser . We ’ ve also taken a look back at Gymkhana , including an interview with the director of the latest instalment , Brian Scotto .
As we ’ re barrelling into Christmas I thought I ’ d make the most of the season of goodwill and thank the people that make all of this possible . From everyone working here at FsX to our sponsors , supporters and , most importantly , you guys – our customer and readers . Thank you !
So enjoy what we ’ ve gathered from 2016 and here ’ s to everything 2017 might hold !
© Christian Pondella / Red Bull Content Pool